1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a farm implement and more particularly to apparatus and method for breaking above-ground farm crop residue following harvest into a plurality of reduced crop residue segments.
2. Description of Prior Art and Objects
The harvesting of farm crop, such as corn, with a combine or a corn picker results in the harvested corn stalks remaining upright in the field. The remaining upright stalks cause difficulty in subsequently tilling the soil and interferes with the harvesting of following crops. Sometimes, the farmer will plow the field to turn over and bury the remaining corn stalks. If the stalks are too long, the furrows won""t cover the stalks.
When a farmer follows a field of harvested corn with a crop of navy beans, for example, it is important in cold climates to plow in the fall of the year to maximize the nutrients in the soil for the following spring planting. If the corn stalks are allowed to remain in their normal harvested length when the field is plowed, the non-buried portion of the stalks do not totally deteriorate, and therefore the nutrients in the soil are not as numerous as they otherwise would be. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide new and novel apparatus which will enhance the amount of nutrients in plowed soil.
For xe2x80x9cminimum-tillxe2x80x9d farming, chisel plows are used to turn the top soil, however, even more of the stalks remain above ground because xe2x80x9cminimum tillxe2x80x9d furrows aren""t as large as plowed furrows.
In so-called xe2x80x9cno-tillxe2x80x9d farming, the farmer does not till the soil and a substantial amount of remaining upstanding stalks pass through the combine which is harvesting the following crop thereby adding to the deterioration of the cutting blade and the combine. Accordingly, it is another object of the present invention to provide new and novel apparatus for leveling farm crop residue to preclude the residue from being harvested with a following crop.
The prior art includes so-called xe2x80x9cflail choppersxe2x80x9d which have rotary blades that are mounted on a tractor drawn frame and driven by a power take off coupled to the tractor. A substantial amount of energy is required to drive the flail choppers and thus a substantial amount of expensive fuel is expended. Accordingly, it is yet another object of the present invention to provide apparatus for breaking farm crop residue into smaller pieces in a more efficient and less expensive manner.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide apparatus of the type described which incorporates a self-propelled rotary stalk crusher.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,574 issued to William P. Fuesz on Jul. 19, 1994, is directed to a machine for chopping crop residue including a relatively complicated system with many moving parts. It has been found advantageous to reorient the upstanding stalks by pushing them forwardly and downwardly and to break the stalks from the underlying ground embedded roots prior to chopping the residue into smaller stalk segments. Accordingly, it is still another object of the present invention to provide a farm crop residue machine which includes a new and novel apparatus mounted on the frame for reorienting the upstanding corn stalks prior to crushing them into pieces.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide new and novel apparatus of the type described for forwardly bending the stalks prior to crushing them into smaller stalk segments.
It is another object of the present invention to provide new and novel apparatus for knocking down the upstanding farm crop and breaking it from the underlying roots.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide new and novel method and apparatus of the type described including a drape for dragging over and knocking down the upright corn stalks prior to crushing them into smaller stalk segments.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,895 issued to Oliver K. Hobbs on Sep. 21, 1999, is directed to apparatus for processing plant stalks after harvesting, however, rather than breaking the upstanding stalks from the underground roots, this patented construction pulls the stalks and the attached roots from the ground and thus tills the soil contrary to the typical no-till farming operation. Accordingly, it is another object of the present invention to provide method and apparatus for breaking upstanding plant residue apart from the underlying roots into a plurality of plant residue segments without tilling the soil.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide new and novel method and apparatus for breaking the stalks from the underlying roots prior to crushing them with a new and novel stalk crushing roller.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide new and novel apparatus of the type described including a new and novel flexible residue knock-down drape disposed forwardly of, and in spaced relation with, a new and novel residue crushing roller.
A further object of the present invention is to provide apparatus of the type described including a new and novel residue crushing roller having a drum mounting a plurality of solid crushing blades circumferentially spaced about the outer surface of the drum.
Different soil conditions will provide different resistance to crushing of the crop residue. Some soil dictates that more force be exerted on the stalk to crush it into smaller stalk segments. Accordingly, it is a still further object of the present invention to provide apparatus of the type described which can crush stalks in a variety of different soils and soil conditions.
Another object of the present invention is to provide farm crop residue crushing apparatus of the type described including a hollow drum having a hollow cylinder provided with end wall closures adapted to receive liquid therein to control the weight of the drum and selectively crush different stalks with a variety of forces in a variety of soil conditions.
Another object of the present invention is to provide new and novel apparatus of the type described including mechanism for mounting a crop residue crushing roller on the frame for vertical movement relative thereto to allow the crusher roller to adapt to the terrain of varying elevations.
Another object of the present invention is to provide apparatus of the type described including apparatus for yieldably maintaining a stalk crushing roller in bearing engagement with the soil so that rotation of the crushing roller will be self-propelled in response to the apparatus moving forwardly.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,800 issued to Albert F. Juraco, et al on Aug. 15, 2000, is directed to field chopping apparatus mounted on the wheels of a tractor for harvesting laterally spaced-apart rows of male corn plants in a hybrid corn producing field. Accordingly, it is yet another object of the present invention to provide a farm crop residue crushing apparatus of the type described including a knock-down mechanism spanning a plurality of rows of crop residue and a crusher roller mounted on the frame behind the roller and spanning the plurality of rows and having continuous chopping blades thereon spanning the plurality of rows.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more readily apparent as the description thereof proceeds:
Apparatus for crushing upstanding stalk residue in a plurality of longitudinally extending laterally adjacent rows of stalk residue, which have ground-embedded roots, following harvesting of crop from the stalk residue, the apparatus comprising: a main frame adapted to be supported on the ground for movement in a forward path of travel, knock-down apparatus for knocking down the upstanding stalk residue, and apparatus, rearwardly spaced from the knock-down apparatus, for breaking the knocked down stalk residue into a plurality of smaller stalk segments including a transversely extending ground engaging crusher roller for spanning a plurality of adjacent rows of stalks, and a plurality of transversely disposed, radially outwardly extending crusher blades mounted on the crusher roller and adapted to span the plurality of adjacent rows for downwardly crushing spaced-apart portions of the stalks against the ground until the resistance of the ground causes the stalks in the several adjacent rows to be concurrently broken into smaller pieces by the crusher blades.